Crush of garlic kills 15 in China

Published: May 10, 2004 8:00 PM

BEIJING, China (AP) Storage shelves stacked high with garlic collapsed in central China, burying more than 30 workers and killing 15 of them, the official Xinhua News Agency has reported.The accident last Wednesday morning in Henan province prompted a large rescue operation to dig out workers weighed down by the massive pile of garlic shoots and broken shelving, the Beijing Times and other newspapers reported.By early Thursday, 15 bodies had been recovered, Xinhua said. Another 19 people were pulled out alive and taken to hospitals, it said.The workers were stacking produce at Chenzhai Cold Storage in the city of Zhengzhou when shelves piled 10 meters (30 feet) high with garlic shoots collapsed, the reports said.Police have detained the storage facility's owner, identified only by the surname Zhang, the reports said.Zhengzhou is about 400 miles southwest of Beijing.